by Olga

Be It Resolved

I admit there is something about anything implying a “new” year triggers the desire to make a resolution, by which I mean a promise to myself to do better, be better.

New Year’s Day, my birthday, the start of a new school year — okay, this time I will do better, be better.

I often, well almost always, fail. I am myself no matter what I try to imagine otherwise.

If you are into your Myers-Briggs personality type, you can find an interesting analysis of such failures here. Apparently, I am not alone in my failure to keep resolutions.

With an estimated 92% failure rate, I wonder why the idea is so deeply ingrained. According to that wondrous source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, the ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods to return borrowed items and pay off all debts. Ancient Romans also made promises and it seems Western religions have adapted the practice in various ways.

A more recent phenomenon is Word of the Year. Merriam-Webster picked “feminism” while The Oxford Dictionary picked “youthquake.” This is a work I never once heard until it was announced as the WOTY (2017) but I live under a rock a lot of the time.

I have gotten the idea that bloggers (and maybe normal people as well) are taking the idea of a word of the year with a twist. Pick a word that will guide you through the coming year. I like that idea!

Like this:

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4 thoughts on “Be It Resolved”

I have always hated New Years, being something of a New Years Scrooge…it always meant back to school or back to work or sometimes both. What is so damned happy about that? As such I have always been somewhat suspect of resolutions. Yet I note that I seem to have a little background script running, lose weight, eat better, be happier…bla bla even if they are not firm resolutions. I think much of it is just guilt from the gluttony of the holidays. By Easter we have long forgotten the guilt from our mid winter festival of unbridled consumption, and thus can continue forward business as usual.

Regarding youthquake it seems to be something evolved out of UK politics. I find feminism much more interesting, from the Women’s March to #MeToo…I hope we as a culture and society are taking permanent steps to recognize that women can no longer be ignored and/or objectified and that the hope for the future lies in solutions and participation from 100% of humanity.

Are resolutions the same thing as goals? I prefer to set goals, in increments, movable as time goes by.
I did chose a word intention for the year – Reduce. I am well on my way to doing that in my house, but not on my body.